Saturday Night Live used its cold opening to mock MSNBC’s Democratic presidential forum with cast member Cecily Strong portraying moderator Rachel Maddow. Strong described the forum as a “debate that no one watches.” After SNL’s Maddow briefly spoke to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, portrayed by Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon appeared on set as Hillary Clinton and the SNL cast member hilariously did her best to mock Clinton’s attempts at appearing authentic.
Debates
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 5, 2015 | 2:52 PM EST
During an interview with the Charlotte Observer to preview MSNBC’s Democratic presidential forum on Friday night, host Rachel Maddow strongly downplayed criticism leveled against CNBC for its handling of the Republican presidential debate.
By Mark Finkelstein | November 5, 2015 | 7:21 AM EST
It was like a mother trying to lead her naughty son through an apology . . .
Last week, Joe Scarborough predicted he would "get in trouble" for calling John Harwood's biased performance as debate moderator "embarrassing." On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski tried, in what seemed perhaps to be a pre-arranged mea culpa, to force Joe to say "I really respect everyone I work with." Joe didn't play along with the script but did ultimately mutter "of course I do" before quickly moving on.
By Kyle Drennen | November 3, 2015 | 12:10 PM EST
On Tuesday, all three network morning shows happily touted President Obama attacking Republicans at a Democratic fundraiser Monday night over GOP presidential candidates objecting to CNBC’s biased debate. At the top of NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “The Republican candidates, briefly unified, splinter again over their debate demands as President Obama takes a swipe, mocking the Republican field's beef with debate moderators.”
By Curtis Houck | November 3, 2015 | 12:57 AM EST
Appearing on the Monday edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, New York magzine writer-at-large Frank Rich denounced the letter written by numerous Republican presidential campaigns to media organizations concerning the format of future debates as “fascistic” and written by “scared little children” but “seem[s] to have been drafted by Stalin.”
By Tom Johnson | November 2, 2015 | 9:19 PM EST
Those who hope that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin get to moderate a Republican presidential debate include Hannity himself, Ted Cruz, and Walsh. As they (almost) used to put it on Sesame Street, one of these persons is not like the others.
Walsh, who recently joined The Nation after more than a decade and a half at Salon, argued in a Friday article that such a debate would benefit Democrats because it would reinforce Republicans’ overconfidence in the popularity of their ideas: “Let the candidates stay within their wingnut bubble...and compete over who can be the most vicious to undocumented immigrants, the cruelest to women seeking abortions, and the kindest to the top one percent…Let the voters watch -- and then cast ballots for the Democrats in droves next November.”
By Kyle Drennen | November 2, 2015 | 4:53 PM EST
In a stunning display of arrogance on Monday, the cast of ABC’s The View not only refused to apologize for calling Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina “demented” following the latest GOP debate, but co-host Whoopi Goldberg actually further attacked Fiorina for criticizing the talk show over the vicious smear.
By Kyle Drennen | November 2, 2015 | 11:42 AM EST
On Monday’s NBC Today, MSNBC political analyst Nicolle Wallace explained the Republican Party’s long-term distrust of the press: “At the core is a massive generational distrust with the mainstream media and it bubbled over in the debate last week.”
By Mark Finkelstein | November 2, 2015 | 8:24 AM EST
In the wake of the CNBC debate debacle, Joe Scarborough went on an epic rant on liberal media bias on today's Morning Joe. He summed things up this way, in challenging the panel: "you can't do it and nobody here can do it: name the single Republican that has hosted a Sunday show, that has been an anchor of a news network for the big three networks over the past 50 years: you can not do it."
Mark Halperin largely agreed, saying "there's huge liberal media bias." But Mike Barnicle actually claimed that having fair moderators would be a bad thing for Republicans because they would lose their ability to run against the media.
Lefty Professor: Conservatives ‘Make War On the Media Because It Sheds Daylight On Their Machinations’
By Tom Johnson | November 1, 2015 | 2:16 PM EST In the week when a new James Bond film is coming out, it’s fitting that two lefty writers are both shaken and stirred by recent Republican blasts at media bias. In a Sunday article for Salon, Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson charged that “since the 1950s, Movement Conservatives have fought the fair examination of their ideas. They embrace a worldview in which a few wealthy men control the economy and dominate society. This idea repels most Americans…Movement Conservatives have gained power only by obfuscating reality. They make war on the media because it sheds daylight on their machinations. Transparency threatens their power.”
Also on Sunday, Washington Monthly blogger David Atkins declared that the MSM are “facing an existential threat” and urged them to not give in: "Republicans [are] increasingly unashamed to tell grandiose lies and respond to any press criticism with derogatory insults and whines about media bias as well as blackmail threats to cancel appearances if the questions are too tough…If the press chooses to assuage and give comfort to the GOP, it will lose what little credibility it has left."
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 1, 2015 | 1:14 PM EST
During an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, disgraced CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather did his best to excuse the criticism of CNBC’s Republican presidential debate and instead chose to blame Republicans for fueling such hatred towards the press. While Rather briefly admitted that CNBC “didn’t do it perfectly” the liberal journalist quickly blamed the GOP presidential candidates whose “constituency loves attacks on the press. So the moderators open themselves to some criticism.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 1, 2015 | 10:04 AM EST
On Sunday’s State of the Union, fill-in host Dana Bash sat down with newly-elected Speaker of the House Paul Ryan about his goals for the new job but did her best to play up the supposed dysfunction among House GOPers. The CNN host played up the liberal line that members of the House Freedom Caucus are a major problem for Republican leadership and asked Ryan “How are you going to control the 40 or so members of that so-called Freedom Caucus in a way that John Boehner couldn't?”